In another setback for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ aggressive anti-LGBTQ agenda, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction allowing a transgender public school teacher to use her preferred title and pronouns while on the job.
“Once again, the State of Florida has a First Amendment problem,” Chief Judge Mark Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida declared in his April 9 order.
“Of late, it has happened so frequently, some might say you can set your clock by it. This time, the State of Florida declares that it has the absolute authority to redefine your identity if you choose to teach in a public school. So, the question before this court is whether the First Amendment permits the state to dictate, without limitation, how public school teachers refer to themselves when communicating to students. The answer is a thunderous ‘no.’”
Katie Wood
The ruling prevents the state from enforcing the Parental Rights in Education Act — known by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law — against Katie Wood, a high school teacher in Hillsborough County. The 2022 measure, highly touted by DeSantis during his failed presidential bid, was designed to squash discussions of sexuality and gender identity in public schools.
Wood, Av Schwandes and another educator sued Florida last year over Subsection 3 of the law requiring educators, when interacting with students, to self-identify with titles and pronouns corresponding to their gender at birth.
“I am hopeful that this ruling will encourage those who feel powerless to stand up for themselves. Where there is pain, there is power, and anything can happen when good people stand up together,” Wood said.
Walker’s preliminary injunction adds to other setbacks for culture-war legislation enacted by Florida to chill free speech around topics such as race, gender and sexuality.
Last month, the state settled a lawsuit filed by an LGBTQ rights groups over provisions of the “Don’t Say Gay” law forbidding classroom discussions of gender identity or sexual orientation. The settlement agreement filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th District in Atlanta permits LGBTQ references in academic work, classroom discussions, literature and work review.
Also in March, the same court upheld Walker’s 2022 ruling that Florida’s Individual Freedom Act is unconstitutional. Also know as “Stop WOKE,” the law codified the state’s prohibition against teaching Critical Race Theory in schools and sought to shield employees of private companies from mandatory training on issues of equity and diversity.
“By barring only speech that endorses any of those ideas, it penalizes certain viewpoints — the greatest First Amendment sin.”
“The ideas targeted in Florida’s Individual Freedom Act are embraced in some communities, and despised in others,” the appeals court explained in its March 4 decision. “By limiting its restrictions to a list of ideas designated as offensive, the act targets speech based on its content. And by barring only speech that endorses any of those ideas, it penalizes certain viewpoints — the greatest First Amendment sin.”
But the ruling clearing Wood’s use of preferred pronouns applies only to her, Walker said, because her attorneys did not adequately demonstrate the need for a statewide injunction. “In Ms. Wood’s case, she has not alleged a First Amendment overbreadth claim in her complaint. Nor has she persuasively explained why she is entitled to a statewide injunction.”
Walker did not grant an injunction for Schwandes, a nonbinary teacher fired by Florida Virtual School in October for continuing to use Mx. and they/them pronouns while at work. The judge ruled that Schwandes, who was born female, failed to provide enough evidence that his First Amendment rights are threatened while not currently working as a state school teacher.
But the First Amendment implications in Woods’ case are clear, Walker said in the conclusion of his decision. “In sharing her preferred title and pronouns, Ms. Wood celebrates herself and sings herself — not in a disruptive or coercive way, but in a way that subtly vindicates her identity, her dignity, and her humanity,” he said. Subsection 3 “has silenced her and, by silencing her, forced her to inhabit an identity that is not her own. The State of Florida has not justified this grave restraint, and so the United States Constitution does not tolerate it.”
Woods’ attorneys said the ruling is encouraging to other LGBTQ people deserving of fair treatment in Florida schools. “A truly safe, supportive and inclusive classroom should affirm all who enter. This ruling sends a strong, positive message to trans and nonbinary educators that their title and their identity are not mutually exclusive. No one should have to change or hide who they are to do the work they love. Katie Wood led by example, as the court agreed that her dedication to her students takes precedence.”
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